Garlits chasing 200 again; this time on battery power

Thursday

May 1, 2014 at 2:42 PMMay 1, 2014 at 4:12 PM

“Big Daddy” Don Garlits has always been an innovator, and he has always liked going fast. At age 82, he is still involved in creating the next generation of high-powered race cars and is still gutsy enough to strap into a dragster and blast down a race track in pursuit of speed and time records.

By Susan Smiley-HeightLocal news editor

“Big Daddy” Don Garlits has always been an innovator, and he has always liked going fast. At age 82, he is still involved in creating the next generation of high-powered race cars and is still gutsy enough to strap into a dragster and blast down a race track in pursuit of speed and time records.Garlits on Wednesday was at the Bradenton Motorsports Park testing his new SR-37 “Quest for 200 MPH on Batteries” dragster. SR stands for Swamp Rat, the moniker given for years to each incarnation of Garlits' racers. According to Randy Cannon, the Las Vegas-based media manager for the project, the Quest Dragster was designed to be the first battery-electric dragster to exceed 200 mph on a 1/4 mile drag strip.Don Garlits on Thursday said the team broke the official battery-powered car record in the 1/4 mile.“It (the old record) was 156 mph in 7.95 seconds. I set the new record at 184.01 mph in 7.258 seconds, with a backup run of 178.42 mph in 7.526 seconds. This was a very good test, as the car was brand new,” he said in an email message.Garlits said he made six passes with the dragster, but “there were several issues, technically speaking. We learned a lot.” Donna Garlits, the youngest of Don's two daughters and the general manager and CFO of the Don Garlits Museum of Drag Racing south of Ocala, said everyone considered the day of testing a success. She said that on two of the runs, “the batteries shut off, which blew a fuse and activated a governor that powers it off.”She said that on the final run the parachute did not deploy and Don ran off the end of the dragstrip.“We were screaming, 'It didn't come out, it didn't come out,' ” she said. “I saw it run off the track and there was a puff of smoke. It went through a fence and wound up in a recently plowed field. I was crying. My son, who is part of the crew, was distraught because he's a father figure to him.” She said when the crew got to the car, Don's first words were: “I guess I need a tow rope.”“He was cool as a cucumber,” she said.“He's fine; the car is pretty much fine,” she added. “We'll figure out what's ahead and get better and try again for 200 (mph). That car can definitely do it.”According to Cannon, the car's team hopes to set the 200 mph speed mark this year to coincide with the 50th anniversary of Don Garlits' historic first official 200 mph pass in 1964 in a top-fuel dragster.Many things have changed in those 50 years. Garlits went on to set a long list of records and amass a number of championship titles. The innovations he implemented after an explosion in a front-engine dragster nearly killed him and claimed part of his right foot in the early 1970s led to a radical change in the way top fuel cars were configured — and in much-improved driver safety.Garlits again is on the forefront of change. Cannon said in a statement that the Quest car is powered by a 1,500 kilowatt array of lithium polymer (LiPo) batteries by HighTech Systems that produce an equivalent horsepower rating of more than 2,000 hp, with GE motors by Lawless Industries. The car uses Manzanita Micro “Zilla” Controllers. The co-owners are Garlits, Brad Hadman and Mike Gerry. Cannon said by phone Wednesday that everyone was “pretty happy” with the first full test runs of the electric dragster. He said they began testing in late 2012 when the car was “bare bones: no skin, no wing.”Tuesday's tests, he said, were “right out of the crate and proved the technology is workable.”He said the car survived some “pounding.”“The first run was at 30 percent power and it went 129 (mph), which is pretty strong. Most electric vehicles don't go much faster than that. At 50 percent, it went 151 mph. At 100 percent there was a power decline, maybe a controller issue. It didn't seem to get up to full power.”Don Garlits stated that the team is “trying to get the Tesla Car Co. involved, as they have access to lots of technical information.” “They had a Tesla car there that was very impressive, a stock vehicle that ran the 1/4 mile in 13.13 seconds with a 105 mph, stock off the showroom floor. I enjoyed driving the Tesla car,” Garlits wrote in his email.Cannon said the Quest Dragster will be thoroughly gone over to determine if there is any damage from landing in the plowed field. He said the batteries would be fine as they are encased in Plexiglas, but the motors and chassis and other components would be “torn down” for inspection. Cannon said the team will still try for the 200 mph record as soon as possible.“That will depend on Don's schedule. He's busier than everyone — at his age,” Cannon said.Garlits is aiming for a retry in a few weeks.“We did not reach the desired goal of 200 mph, but we will return to the strip in June when the modifications have been made to the car that will improve the performance,” he noted.Contact Susan Smiley-Height at 867-4121 or susan.smiley-height@starbanner.com. Follow her on Twitter at @ssmileyheight.